Probably one of the biggest challenges facing homeowners who are looking into upgrading their home heating system, is deciphering the tech talk and lingo that seems to be so popular when it comes to talking about HVAC, which is an acronym of Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning, just to get you started.
When you start researching HVAC products, you will soon encounter someone referring to BTU or DHW or talking about heat exchangers.
Getting started
BTU stands for British Thermal Unit and Ton and is basically the industry standard term for a measurement of heat.
A BTU is actually a measurement of any energy produced, whether it is a single wooden match or an industrial space heater, they all have a BTU which is quoted in terms of BTU’s per hour. For example, a space heater produces 3,400 BTU’s/hour and a 3 ton heating system in your home can produce 36,000 BTU’s per hour.
The other basic term we referred to is DHW and this is very simply an abbreviation for Domestic Hot Water, which is the water that comes out of your faucet.
Heat Exchanger
It is also helpful to understand what a heat exchanger is and what it does.
A heat exchanger is the device that is used to transfer things like heated water that is in your boiler that you do not want contaminating your drinking water supply. A heat exchanger achieves this task without the two different things coming into contact with each other.
Know your systems
It will also help to get a basic grip on the differences between the different types of systems you can have fitted in your home.
A boiler is the easiest one to get to grips with as this is very simply a heating system that uses hot water to heat your home by boiling it.
A furnace is a heating system that makes use of hot air and this is also sometimes referred to as a forced air or even a scorched air heating system, which is still considered to be a furnace.
A heat pump more often than not, the term used to describe a forced system that works using similar technology used in air conditioning systems, but in reverse so that you get warm air.
Efficiency ratings
When you are comparing and evaluating systems, it also helps if you know a bit about the different efficiency rating acronyms used by suppliers.
AFUE – Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency
An AFUE rating is used as a way of indicating of what level of energy that goes into your furnace is able to be converted into useable heating power. A furnace should be rated at least 80% AFUE and the higher the rating the less power you will be using and therefore being more energy efficient.
HSPF – Heating Season Performance Factor
This is a specific measure of the calculated heating efficiency of your heat pump during a given season, which means that heat pumps can also be rated by SEER, which measures cooling efficiency.
MERV – Minimum Efficiency Reporting Value
This is a measurement used to rate the effectiveness of your air filter. The ratings band ranges from 1 to 16 and the higher the MERV rating, the more particles your filter is able to remove from the air, so a look for a good MERV rating for cleaner air.
These are just some of the more common terms you will encounter and hopefully knowing what they stand for, will help your understand what to look for when your looking to compare systems.
Helen R. Marlowe is a home energy consultant. She enjoys sharing her experiences online. Her articles appear mainly on family and homeowner sites.
